Reddit citations in ChatGPT Search drop over 86%
AI search and analytics company PromptWatch is reporting a sharp drop in how often Reddit gets cited in ChatGPT Search down by more than 86%. Reddit had been holding a fairly steady citation rate in ChatGPT, sitting at around 3.83% on average, according to PromptWatch. But something shifted starting August 14, and the numbers fell […]
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Google says favicon display issue is on their end
There have been a growing number of complaints on X and LinkedIn about missing website favicons in Google Search. We covered this issue previously when Google was first seen struggling to display favicons in search results. Now Google has confirmed this is simply a bug, and the team is working on resolving it. Glenn Gabe […]
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Google tests moving the search bar position on the results page
Google appears to be testing another change to where the search bar sits on the results page. Previously, the search bar started above the AI Mode tab, but today it appeared starting from the Images tab instead. This isn’t the first time Google has experimented with the search bar’s placement or size we’ve seen tests […]
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Google Search Console Crawl Stats Missing Two Days Of Data
The crawl stats report within Google Search Console has a data gap again. This time the crawl stats report is missing August 15 and 16th crawl data. Normally, Google can fix the data but Google has not yet fixed it.
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Unleashed The August 2026 Spam Update, Gemini 3.7 Powers AI Mode, Google and Microsoft Ads News & More
Google has released its third spam update of the 2026 year, the August 2026 spam update this week and finished rolling out Friday morning at 4:50am. Google Search’s AI Mode is now being powered sometimes by…
Google changes how it parses double-escaped JSON-LD entities
Google has changed how it extracts JSON-LD data, bringing it more in line with JSON and other web standards. As Google Search Central announced on LinkedIn, Google will only do a single pass of HTML unescaping. What developers should know If developers are using JSON-LD for structured data, it’s time to update your code. Instead […]
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Google Preferred Source Button Improved For Publishers
Google has updated the Preferred Sources button that publishers have on their websites to make it so that the user is taken right back to the page they were originally on. There is new embed code that handles this process to make it easier for users to…
Microsoft Advertising Max CPC Won’t Be Available For New Campaigns On Oct 1
Microsoft Advertising sent out emails yesterday announcing changes coming to Max CPC bidding. Microsoft wrote, “Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns” after October 1, 2026.
Google Ads & AI Max New Experimentation & Planning Features
Google announced it is rolling out new experimentation and planning capabilities in Google Ads and AI Max. There are new A/B test capabilities, brand and location parameters options and new Performance Planner predictions.
Google Local Service Ads Pre-Badge Ads & Expansion Of Verticals
Google has made some big updates to Local Service Ads. Even though LSAs are transitioning to Google Ads, Google is clearly still investing in the LSA product. Google added something called pre-badge ads, massively expanded the verticals and the verifi…
JSON-LD Extraction For Googlebot Now Does One Pass Of HTML Unescaping
Google’s crawler now strictly enforces standard JSON formatting when reading your site’s structured data, schema markup, instead of auto-correcting double-escaped HTML text. “To bring our parser up to JSON and other standards, we changed our JSON-LD ex…
Google Discover Feed Can Be Tailored By Words
Google is rolling out the ability to tailor your Google Discover feed by using your words, in a conversational chat-like experience. You are taken to a screen that lets you enter your desired topics, then you can go back and forth with AI to really zo…
Google Tag & Google Tag Manager Updated
Google updated the Google Tag and Google Tag Manager. Google said, “these changes are designed to streamline your measurement setup, improve performance and management, and provide a more unified experience across Google’s tagging products.”
Google confirms August 2026 spam update is complete
Google August 2026 spam update is completed and rolling out. The update was started on August 18 and finished three days later, on August 21. Google wrote on x “The rollout was complete as of August 21, 2026.” When Google first launched the update, they wrote on x, “Released the August 2026 spam update, which […]
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Google August 2026 Spam Update Has Finished Rolling Out
The Google August 2026 spam update is now done rolling out. It started on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at around 12:30 pm ET and completed on August 21, 2026 at around 4:50 am. Despite some people feeling the update started soon, Google’s John Mueller sai…
Google Tests New Colour Variation for Featured Snippets
Google is testing to show colours for text in featured snippets. We searched for SEO, and the text appeared in a featured snippet with different colours. I assume this is new previously, Google was testing more variations with featured snippets, like background colours showing in a box and many more, but this test seems new […]
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Google adds new personalization features across Search, Discover, and News
Google announced new personalization features across Search, Discover, and Google News. The goal is to give users more control over their preferred sources and topics. 1. Preferred Sources button Google introduced a new Preferred Sources button that publishers can embed directly on their websites. When a user clicks the button, that website gets added to […]
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Google tests highlighted sponsored results on mobile
Google is testing a highlighted background for its sponsored results and the section beneath them on mobile. I spotted this while searching on Google the results appeared under the “Sponsored Results” heading, and once that section ended, the entire block was visually highlighted, standing apart from the rest of the page. Here is a screenshot […]
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Why Google Announces Some Search Updates But Not All
As you know, Google does smaller core updates and algorithm search updates all the time without announcing them. So why does Google announce some of those updates and not the others. Well, as Google told us before, Google announces the larger, more im…
Google Ads Can Find Sitelinks For You
Google Ads can now help you find sitelinks for your ad extensions. A new feature within the Google Ads advertiser console will now suggest new sitelinks to add to your ads.